The March 23, 1895 editon of the New York Times had this to say about the book:

Mr. Bangs continues in the manner of Oliver Wendell Holmes with a difference to report the conversations at the breakfast table in the boarding house of Mrs. Pedagog, who was formerly Mrs. Smithers, and The Idiot is still, as it were, the protagonist. One must be just in the mood for nonsense to properly appreciate Mr. Bangs's humor.

An example of this humor:

"Humph!" he said. "I had hoped that your habit of airing your idiotic views had been put aside for once and for all."

"Very absurd hope, my dear sir," observed the Idiot. "Views that are not aired become musty. Why shouldn't I give them an atmospheric opportunity once in a while?"

"Because they are the sort of views to which suffocation is the most appropriate end," snapped the School-Master.

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